


The Field Trip

by iffiness



Series: fem!Tony stuff [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Genderswap, No Spoilers, Not A Fix-It, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Rule 63
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 11:53:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14519970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iffiness/pseuds/iffiness
Summary: Toni blinked several times at that. She wasn’t sure of anyone other than Happy who would actually follow a bunch of kids around on a school trip. Pepper was way too busy. Vision? No. May didn’t know Viz, and even then he still wouldn’t do it. Rhodey was in DC for the week. The longer she thought about it, and the heavier May’s gaze on her grew, the more she knew what was happening. “Ms. Parker,” she drawled out, sitting her phone down for the first time since their meal began. “You cannot possibly mean what I think you mean.”





	The Field Trip

**Author's Note:**

> another fem!Tony fic. I'm just in a mood I guess. Enjoy the first chap! We'll see how the rest goes when I get it all written, but if anyone has any recs or ideas I'm all ears!

It was the third time May had taken her up on the offer for very expensive lunches to make up for hiding the fact that Peter, her wonderful nephew, had hidden the fact that he was nightlighting as a masked vigilante and that Toni had dragged him to Germany to fight the rogue Avengers.

Honestly? It wasn’t that much to ask for. May had spent the last two finding new ways to insult and/or chew her out, but it was nothing Toni’d not had to deal with before. She had a lifetime of experience with this particular brand of ire. She was more impressed that May kept it going for so long, and had no intention of stopping yet. 

Which was how she ended up in some uptown restaurant that Toni did not bother to check the name of, sitting across from the woman who was uncharacteristically silent for once. Not that she cared. She had a literal ton of shit she needed to be doing, and barely glanced up from the screen of her phone to check on May every few minutes. 

Okay, maybe the silence was a little unnerving. But she really did have things she needed to get done. T’Challa had been texting her all morning with both ideas for the Accord revisions and updates on the BARF program they were testing on an unnamed subject in Wakanda. Toni had snorted at that. Unnamed subject her ass. She knew exactly who he intended to use it on the second he’d asked, and she’d agreed anyway. If she had a therapist they’d call her a masochist or something. And beyond that, Ross had been sending her scathing emails with more false threats and orders she’d not follow. The guy was sure Toni had been a part of the prison break a couple of months ago, but he couldn’t find any proof so he’d just taken to making her life a living hell in the meantime. God, then there was all the PR fallout after the so-called “Civil War”, and the stock drop SI had gone through. It had taken her breaking down and creating an entire line of Stark brand kitchen appliances that could be controlled with your Starkphone for their stocks to go back up. Pepper had not been pleased, especially when Toni had all but spent ninety percent of her free time in her lab. She had to fix her suit, had to make braces for Rhodey and try to figure out how to fix his back, she was even working on a prototype for a new shield for Cap. God, she really is a masochist. 

“Ms. Stark.”

Toni’s attention was snapped back away from her phone at the biting tone and the fork waving under her face, looking at the woman across from her incredulously. Clearly she’d missed something, so she just raised a brow in question.

“As I was saying,” May began, and Toni smiled pleasantly when she realized the moment she’d been waiting to happen was finally happening, “I can’t get the day off, and Peter said it was okay but I know he’s heartbroken because of it. He’s been looking forward to this field trip for weeks. And I already told his teacher I had someone who could stand in as chaperone for me.”

Oh. That didn’t sound like an insult.

Toni’s brows furrowed as she continued to stare blankly at the other woman, the silence stretching on for a full minute as she tried to process what had been said. It was, in fact, the furthest thing from what Toni had thought she was going to say that it’d thrown her through a loop and she found herself having to backtrack and reset her brain. 

“Oh.” Toni understood now. “Yeah, whatever. I’ll let Happy know he’s going with the kid to… wherever. He’ll love it. I’ll even give him some cash and they can get ice cream or something.” 

May laughing at her had also been unexpected. “I didn’t mean Happy, Ms. Stark.”

Toni blinked several times at that. She wasn’t sure of anyone other than Happy who would actually follow a bunch of kids around on a school trip. Pepper was way too busy. Vision? No. May didn’t know Viz, and even then he still wouldn’t do it. Rhodey was in DC for the week. The longer she thought about it, and the heavier May’s gaze on her grew, the more she knew what was happening. “Ms. Parker,” she drawled out, sitting her phone down for the first time since their meal began. “You cannot possibly mean what I think you mean.”

She nodded. Damn it all to hell, she actually nodded as if she did mean it. “It would mean the world to Peter, Ms. Stark. He looks up to you so much. Not that I know why, but he does. Plus, you owe me what? Five thousand more favors?” 

“Ms. Parker, there is absolutely no way I can take a day to go do whatever this is,” Toni continued on, choosing to just ignore the fact that yes, she did owe May Parker some big favors. The stubborn woman had refused to just take money. “I am literally so busy that even just taking these lunches with you is really pushing it. Did you know I had to rearrange not one, but three, meetings just to come here today? Three very important meetings.”

“Which is why I took the liberty of reaching out to Ms. Potts first,” May smiled pleasantly, and Toni nearly sputtered with disbelief. She had gone above her head. May Parker had outplayed her. “Ms. Potts agreed that it would be a nice thing to do for Peter. And for you, because even Toni Stark needs a day off every once in a while. She already cleared your schedule tomorrow.” 

“How do you even have Pepper’s number?” was the only thing Toni could even think to say, her phone dinging where she’d left it on the table. A quick glance showed her that yes, it was Pepper who texted her, and it confirmed May’s story. “When did you even meet Pepper?” A quick glance over May’s shoulder, to the booth Happy was sitting out just a few tables away, revealed that not only had he been watching but he was actively trying to hide a grin. “Was Happy in on this?”

May definitely was not trying to hide her grin in the least. God, no wonder Peter was so sassy. He got it all from her. “It was his idea, actually.” 

A quick, dirty look at Happy again was all it took for the man to feign being busy on his own phone, but the damage was already done. God. The two people closest to her, besides Rhodey (and he’d probably be in on it too if he could, the little shit) had betrayed her. Sold her out to this… this aunt-dictator. 

“Thank you for lunch, Ms. Stark,” May was standing up and flattening down the pencil skirt she was wearing, “You should wear something warm tomorrow. And be there by seven. AM.” 

May Parker walked away then, pausing briefly by Happy to tell him that she’d take a cab and wish him a good rest of the day, leaving behind a completely shocked (also terrified) Toni Stark. If Peter grew up to be just like his aunt? Well, Toni wasn’t quite sure the world could handle it. 

The drive back upstate had been Toni’s most brutal, effective silent treatment she’d ever given someone. Happy had tried several times to talk to her, but she steadfastly refused to talk to traitors and she said just as much to him. It didn’t help that he just laughed at her. 

It did help to see her beautiful compound. All pristine, futurist whites and glass that made a gorgeous photo. It was busy, people coming and going, quinjets taking off every so often, but it was home. It was good. She almost forgot her ire about the entire situation as they walked inside and Friday greeted them, but then Pepper came strolling into the room. 

She looked amazing. Well, it was Pepper, she always looked good, but her red locks were curled on top of her head in a wonderful updo that just accented the length of her neck. The smart outfit was tight in all the right ways and Toni recognized the heels. She’d bought them for her. She had actually bought them. She didn’t have Friday order them or tell Happy to get it or just give Pepper the money to do it. She had taken time out of her day to pick them out. 

“That’s not gonna work,” Toni warned her as they fell into pace walking together. She wasn’t that easy. Just because Pepper was wearing something she’d gotten her wasn’t gonna make what had happened better. “You know I can’t do this. Despite you magically clearing my schedule, Ms. Potts, I can’t just take a day to go to… what, a zoo?” 

“The DNA Learning Center in Cold Spring Harbor, actually,” Pepper corrected her, ever patient and just a bit amused. “Toni, it’s just a day trip. Eight hours.”

“Eight hours with teenagers,” Toni corrected her venomously, hooking a left toward the conference room. She wasn’t lying to May, after all. She did have meetings to get to. 

“I’ll wear that thing you like if you just stop whining and do it.” 

“Are you… are you bribing me?” Toni stopped walking just as suddenly as Pepper said it, turning to look at the other woman. Pepper looked totally impish. It was delightful. “Ms. Potts, I am totally unflappable. Bribery will not work.” She stepped forward to Pepper anyway, crowding her space with a small grin. There was a reason she loved this woman. 

Pepper met her halfway, pecking her on the lips once with a smirk. “I’m aware, Ms. Stark,” she replied evenly, though the way her hips rocked into Toni’s was anything but even. “So aware, in fact, that I’ve already called ahead to the school and told them that you are surprising Peter tomorrow. And that you won’t ride the bus, so he can bring a couple of his friends into your car for the ride to and from the exhibit if he wants.” And with that Pepper rocked away from her again, walking ahead a few steps to place her hand on the handle to the door. 

Toni groaned, pocketing her phone and following after her. Pepper was good. Too good. “Why do I love you, again?” 

“Because without me you’d not be able to function. Now get in there, we’ve kept them waiting long enough.” They shared one more quick kiss before they both straightened themselves out and went inside, beginning the long series of meetings before that evening. 

The following morning came slowly to Toni, who had for once spent the night in her bed with Pepper, curled up and warm and totally rested. She was currently underneath layers of soft blankets, her face buried deeply into the down pillow. It was nice. She’d not felt so relaxed in months, not since… well, everything. And then everything that had happened with the kid. God, he was a magnet for trouble. She told him not to go after that Vulture guy, but no. He did. Admittedly, he saved her ass, because if anyone had gotten some of the tech on that plane it would’ve been very bad, but it was damned risky. Doesn’t change the fact that it was immensely stressful. She wasn’t lying to him, after all. If anything happened to him she’d feel responsible. 

A loud smack against her legs brought her even further into the land of the living, groaning as she lifted her head from the soft haven to glare down at the foot of the bed. Pepper stood there, already looking totally immaculate, and what Toni could only assume was her outfit for the day over one arm. “I told you to wake up twenty minutes ago, Toni,” Pepper chided, but since there was no real bite in it, Toni figured she’d not expected her to actually get up. Probably woke her up early just to make sure she’d actually get up on a reasonable timeline anyway. “C’mon. You need to get ready.” 

“What are you, my mom?” Toni retorted, slowing untangling herself from the mountain of blankets. She stretched out slowly, groaning as her muscles protested. God, she was old. “What’s on the agenda?”

“For you? Making sure a kid has the best field trip of his life.” Pepper had moved to laying out the clothes across the foot of the bed as Toni stretched, and she now stood with a hand on her hip as she watched her. “Try to be… less you, today.” 

“What’s that mean, less me?” she grumbled, reaching down the bed to grab the shirt. It was her favorite graphic tee, the one with the cat heads on it, and it made her take a second look at Pepper. She hated this top. But looking up at her, the beautiful woman she loved so dearly, made her realize that maybe she was being a bit of an ass about the whole thing. “You really care about this kid, don’t you?” 

“And you don’t?” Pepper’s reply came quick, sharp, but it hit the nail on the head. Of course she cared about the kid. She just didn’t know why that was extending to chaperoning a field trip. “Look, Toni,” her hands were in her head now, smoothing it back before tipping it up to give her a soft kiss, “You’re so stressed out lately. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you’re hardly sleeping, or eating, or… well, anything. And I know why. I mean, I don’t know what happened over there exactly, but I know it wasn’t good. You need this just as much as he does. I’ll field all the hard calls today. If there’s anything that can’t absolutely wait for you I’ll send it your way, but otherwise just enjoy yourself, okay? For me.” 

How was she supposed to argue with that? The argument basically melted out of her at those words, leaving her with just a sigh and a nod. Pepper was right. She was struggling in the aftermath of everything, and she was running on fumes as it was. She stood up then, wrapping her arms around Pepper’s hips and sealing her in a languid, slow kiss, before pulling back and pushing their foreheads together. “Okay,” she whispered, kissing her once again. “Will that be all, Ms. Potts?” 

Pepper pressed their lips together a final time and Toni felt her smile more than saw it, the two of them separating slowly. “That’ll be all, Ms. Stark,” Pepper affirmed, gently squeezing Toni’s shoulder before picking up her purse and strolling to the door. “Have a good time today.” 

“Easier said than done,” Toni quipped back as Pepper left, tugging the rest of her clothes to her. Still dress pants, because she couldn’t just wear jeans out in public (the tabloids would be all over that in an instant), and a blazer to go over the t-shirt. The Converse was a nice casual touch, and then she was heading out. She vaguely considered doing makeup, but she’d never bothered before. The only thing she checked was that her hair was up in a tidy bun on the back of her head. 

“Happy!” Her shout as she came into the garage had startled the man to death as he almost dropped the coffee he was holding, making Toni grin widely. “That for me?” 

He held it out to her with a nod, and Toni took it gratefully. She’d intended to ask if they could stop for some on the way there, but he’d beaten her to it. “Sure is, Ms. Stark. Ready to go?”

“I am,” Toni smiled, sipping the warm, bitter drink eagerly. She pat his shoulder once as she passed by, sliding into the door he held open. It was as much of an apology for the silent treatment the day before that she could manage, and she knew he understood that. He’d been with her for years. He knew her better than most. She slid her sunglasses on and spread out across the backseat, her attention on the screen of her phone as she checked unread emails “Anything I should know about this field trip business?” 

“Didn’t figure you’d ever done this before,” Happy replied, driving them away from the compound already. “It’s not that hard. You’re a chaperone, so you’ll probably get assigned a group of four or five kids to watch out for. It’s pretty general stuff. Keep ‘em out of trouble, make sure they have a good time, all that. And I’ll be around too, so it won’t be that hard.” 

She could barely keep one kid out of trouble every night, and they expected her to do it for five? What a joke. “Good thing you’ll be around,” she sipped her drink again, crossing her legs, “I can hardly keep myself out of trouble. I don’t know why you all thought this was a good idea.” Happy laughed at that, and then they settled into a companionable silence. They’d left early enough to not have to worry about being late, and despite Pepper’s best efforts Toni already had several important emails she was working on typing out responses to. 

Within three hours they had pulled into the school lot, and Toni had pocketed her phone to look curiously out the tinted windows. Their car was definitely not one of the more ostentatious ones, bigger to hold more people and just black, but it was different enough to be catching the eyes of kids walking into the school. Not her kid, though. She didn’t see him anywhere. 

“They’ll be meeting in the gym first, to go over the day’s activities and schedule,” Happy informed her as if he’d read her mind, making Toni nod in thanks. 

“I assume that we need to be present for that?” At his nod she sighed, mentally prepping herself for what was going to happen. Her appearance was going to cause a scene. It was basically a given for her at this point in her life. The only good thing was that it was just kids, not angry or bitter adults. Kids were annoying, but not nearly as hard to deal with.

Happy opened the door to the car and she got out easily, taking her time to scope the place out first. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was just a high school starting its day, but she felt infinitely better when she saw Happy cuffing the newest edition of the suitcase armor to his wrist. She’d taken to upgrading the Mark V separately from the rest. Having a suit nearby was a comfort she couldn’t give up that easily. It was actually something she was actively working on rectifying. It just wasn’t practical to carry that heavy suitcase around anymore, and she had a few nanotech ideas floating around she intended to work on. He nodded to her when he caught her eye, having apparently been thinking the same thing about bringing the armor, before leading her into the school. He’d keep the kids off her. It was what he was good at. 

They finally arrived at the gym and she was surprised to find it was less kids than she’d expected. No more than fifteen by her count, but they were all wearing god awful yellow… oh, the Decathlon team. That made sense. Peter told her about them before. They all had their backs to her as their coach addressed them. He was the only one who saw her come in. What had Pepper said the guy’s name was? Harryton? Harryson? Harri-something. Good enough. 

“Ah, our last chaperone!” Mr. Harri-something called out, waving at her excitedly. She had to take a moment to realize that these first few moments were going to be just as awful as any gala she’d ever been to. “Just in time!” 

She made the quick decision to leave the sunglasses on, feeling the need for the extra layer of armor on top of the huge media smile she put on as the kids and two other chaperones turned to look at her. She didn’t care about them though, eyes traveling down the line to find the kid she was there for. He looked like he was going to throw up. It was hilarious. “Sorry I’m late,” she called out, leaving Happy at the door as she strolled toward them. “Traffic. You know how it is.” 

“No, no, Ms. Stark, it’s fine. We’d only just started,” Mr. Harri-something spit out quickly, moving forward to shake her hand eagerly. “Thank you so much for stepping in today for Ms. Parker! I could hardly believe it when they told me!”

“We had a very similar reaction then,” Toni joked, her smile sticking on her face as the joke got the laughs she’d wanted. It broke the tense, unsure air rather quickly as everyone suddenly realized that yes, Toni Stark was definitely in the same room as them. And their chaperone. “Hey, Peter,” she turned to the spiderling as quickly as she realized the others were going to swarm her if she didn’t move soon, making her way to him and standing firmly on his other side. He’d chosen the end of the line to stand at, and she could only mentally applaud his choice. “Fancy seeing you here.” 

“Ms. Stark?” the kid squeaked out in reply, looking at her as if she’d grown a second head. His normal word vomit seemed to have literally disappeared, and she couldn’t help but to look at him to make sure he was actually okay. It was unlike him to be at a loss for words.

“The one and only. Your aunt is a terror.” 

He didn’t say anything further, which was surprising. But it did leave her open to hearing what was being whispered down the line.

“Holy shit what’s Toni Stark doing here?”  
“Oh my god! He wasn’t lying about the internship!”  
“Penis Parker actually knows Toni Stark?” 

She blinked at the last one, leaning around Peter to try to get an eye on the kid who’d said it. Penis Parker? Really? How unoriginal. She couldn’t find the kid though, so she let it go, opting instead to at least pretend to be listening as the Mr. Harri-dude started talking again. It was really a testament to her will that she caught enough to understand the basics of their itinerary. Lunch at twelve. Leaving by one thirty. Easy. She just had to follow the kids around until then and she’d be free. 

The group started moving dutifully then, apparently being driven more by their want to be on time than to meet Toni Stark as they headed toward the bus. Peter was still standing stalwartly at her side, and she hefted out a sigh as she turned to him. “Peter?” 

He turned to look at her then, nervously glancing around before leaning closer to whisper to her. “Is there a mission? What’s going on?”

She laughed at that, slapping him once on the shoulder. “I’m your chaperone. May cornered me. Pepper backed her. I had no choice, really. Now c’mon, I’m not riding on that metal death trap. Pick a couple of friends and let’s blow this popsicle stand.” 

“Oh my god, Ms. Stark,” Peter began, his words flowing together in that blindingly fast way she’d come to expect of him. “You didn’t have to do this! I told May it was fine. Oh my god, you’re so busy. I’m so sorry, Ms. Stark!”

She rolled her eyes at that, glancing around the room. She knew Peter had at least one friend on this team, and her suspicions were confirmed when she saw a guy hanging back just enough to be watching them. A girl wasn’t too far ahead of him. Toni nodded to them then, lifting her hand up to a curl a finger at them. “You two his friends?” at the boy’s nod she continued, ”C’mon then, drag this wonderful intern of mine with you. We’re riding in style. Happy! Let’s get outta here.”


End file.
